


Moments of Fear

by WhirlyBird70



Series: monsters chasing dreams [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, DEMON STRAWHAT N FRIEND DRABBLES, Demons, ESOM, Gen, One Piece but Eldritch, dang, happy spooky season, i do mean drabbles thhis time tho, start from the elephant and go to the fairy and then to the mystery man himself, then end up with 12k chapters, this is the weirdest character tags i have on any fic, this isnt gonna be like esom where i say haha drabbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 10,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26786587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhirlyBird70/pseuds/WhirlyBird70
Summary: There are demons, if you know where to look.(Eastward.Lookeastward.)-Or: A series of drabbles for Spooky Month, set in the Sea of Monsters universe, in which everyone from the East Blue is a demon.
Series: monsters chasing dreams [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953214
Comments: 58
Kudos: 238





	1. crossroads - zunesha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS FOR: lots of cross imagery and Zou Spoilers

There are crosses littering Zunesha’s back. Crossroads made of wood, where men chose their fate, and they are things that do not belong there. Things that should not be there, hurting her people, forcing her beloved people through _torture,_ forcing them to choose _life_ or _death._

She attempts to hit the people creating them, but she has been sent to wander for eternity and is so very, very tired.

(Every step is a triumph, every mile is a day she does not end up like her brethren, skulls in the black waters of the East. Every day lived is a day her children, her country on her back, live as well.

She cannot stop walking. Not until she Arrives.)

But then – but then, but then, but then – _they_ arrive.

The children of the devil.

The children of the East Sea.

The children of the Sea that killed her brethren.

Suddenly, she is thankful for the crosses.

(Those who know of dark waters also know of crossroads. Of the point where demons must choose, and where they can choose easily, but – Crosses are deadly because they _chain_ them, those demons, those devils, between nature and choice. They cannot leave and they cannot choose and it is torture of the highest degree, or so some legends go.

Zunesha knows it as a ward against death.)

The children give them wide berths, these little devil children with smoky limbs and gleaming teeth. There’s five of them, wandering her back, and it takes all of her will not to _throw_ them off.

They are strong. They do not come with the intent to kill her children, the children she chose, the children allowed on her back.

They, especially the Straw Hatted One Who Feasts, may _save_ her children.

She reaches out, a prayer in ancient tongues, and _hopes._

(Straw Hat Luffy hears her voice and _screams.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY SPOOKY SEASON!!! STARTING ONE DAY LATE BUT WHO CARES! We got 31 drabbles, one for each day this month, all set in esom! Most will be canon, some will be noncanon (only two of right now,) but just perspectives and such that won't make their way into the main fic for a while yet, or who will never be long enough to post as a chapter in esom!
> 
> i hope you enjoy this lovely little au of mine! its been very fun to write!
> 
> shout out to discord for giving me these prompts love you all <333
> 
> thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \- whirly  
> 
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	2. Howl - Bogard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the prompt 'werewolf'

Bogard is a wolf, and Bogard is _loyal._ He made that decision long ago - to sink into his nature and never let go.

Garp allows him too, and Garp is _steady._ An angel, that would never let his men do wrong, only him.

He’s a good man, a good angel, a good _demon_ , to be loyal to, Bogard thinks, even as seven hells flash before his eyes in the form of soft feathery wings.

When Bogard _shifts,_ in tune with the third moon and the rising tide, it is _Garp_ to whom he turns to, and to Garp to whom he _bows._

 _Crack,_ go his joints ins sickening symphony, _Shkk!_ Goes his claws into bloodied dirt, _Ssss_ , grows his hair as voices _scream_ from his fur ripping through cloth.

Bogard _howls,_ as everything clicks softly into place at last, a grotesque spectacle ending with a wolf that towers above giants.

Garp had found him in his youth, when Bogard was only a child of the _East,_ of _Dawn,_ of the Jungles that writhes at the end of the world.

Garp had saved him, then, and Bogard had followed, loyal, to the end. Sometimes man, sometimes beast, but _never_ human - Bogard followed, letting his footsteps hit the floor like eardrums behind Garp, leaving devastation in their wake.

After the moon rises, Garp smiles at him like he smiled that first time, softly proud, each eye gazing over Bogard. A moment, then a nod, then they _run,_ angel (not quite -) and wolf (not quite -) running over ocean waters that part at a wolf of the dawn’s feet.

Bogard _howls,_ again, and the moon shakes in the sky, but he is loyal, and he will not chase it, yet.

Not when justice has other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i did just make a character with like 0 lines a werewolf, no i do not regret it, have your loyalty content
> 
> Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading! 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	3. Quiet - Sabo (and Koala)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the prompt koala and sabo in esom

Sabo is scariest when he is quiet.

This, Koala knows without a doubt.

She can handle the way Sabo’s punches leaves scars, the way he leaps far too high for any man, the way he _sees_ the way Dragon sees, the way emperors see when the world collapses to their will, - this abnormality, this step to the left she can handle.

(The way Sabo _howls_ at night, the way he avoids circles like second knowledge, the way he sees in the dark too well and never sleeps on his back, the way he _howls_ sometimes - she can handle it.

She _can._

The way Sabo lives, with sharp teeth and sharper promises that never seem to break, it doesn’t scare her. _It doesn’t.)_

The way Sabo will stumble, sometimes, and stop to stare Eastward is what truly scares her. Because then Sabo will grow listless, walk forward, clench his fists until his knuckles are red, and _breathe_ like dead men living breathe.

Stilted.

Like Sabo doesn’t belong to _himself_ anymore.

It scares Koala, scares her down to her bones like how city walls scare Sabo, and she’s so very glad Sabo has lost his memory.

She doesn’t want to know what’s calling him.

(She doesn’t want to lose her best friend to his own oaths.)

She doesn’t want to know. _Ever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tsk tsk sabo stop making promises that you cant keep.... or can you ? 
> 
> We're all caught up now, and anyway, don't forget october third. Wish I had a flame prompt to post today for this fic, but alas, I do not. tragic! 
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	4. colors - leo

There is a god hanging above Leo’s head. He is feathered, and bloodied, and _dangerous_ , for only the briefest of seconds, but when the god lifts his head all Leo can see is _colors._

Weaving, in an out, looking farther than Leo has ever seen. Colors that stare into his soul, colors that pierce his heart, colors that _kill._

Doflamingo, the tyrant lord, proclaims this creature as _god._ Leo, watching as the man flickers back into his skin and claws his way to victory, watching as the man is feathered and flesh and legends made real, watching as something like hell _tamed_ saves them, cannot see why he is wrong.

(No one else could see it, no one else could see the threads that wove legends together as Leo could with his fruit, and so Leo keeps his mouth quiet about the dark, and sings praises with the rest.

Usoland - Usopp, as the other call him, lies.

Leo doesn’t think he will lie to them, not when his legends create truth and everyone word that spills from his mouth is true, if woven into a reality not this one.

He doesn’t know _why,_ but Usopp blinks, long and slow at Leo, and Leo learns not to question it, no the fear inside his chest.)

A demon-god had saved Dressrossa.

Leo wonders if he will damn the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dressrossa is gonna be FUN  
> ...  
> once i figure out wtf law is doing in this au at least lmao
> 
> hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	5. rise - dragon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the prompt cackle!!

Garp’s child is born with two eyes and a flurry of scales running down his spine. Scaled and furious, Garp calls him _Dragon,_ because if any serpent is going to destroy everything Garp has built it is his own child.

Dragon _rises_ in between the streets of Goa and the paths of Windmill, slinking into the jungle and onto Marine ships. Garp has so many eyes but he can only _shiver_ as his son’s two eyes pierce Garp to his core with an intensity Garp can never hope to match.

Dragon’s eyes are red in the night.

There’s blood under his claws.

Garp watches him disappear on full moons, when the swirling sea is at its highest fury, and does not question.

(It is no one’s place to question the actions of the monstrous. That path only leads to ruin.)

Dragon rises, and leaves, and leaves three burning marine ships in his path.

Later, Garp will wonder what was the tipping point, for a man to go against the world, for a man to eat the world alive, for a man to seek out the ends of the earth and seek to free it.

Was it Goa? The Marine Headquarters? The passage through the Veil?

(The Veil cracks men in half like the New World does to rookie. Only the strong, survive, if barely, and Dragon is of Garp’s ilk, of hellfire, unholy blood and something darker than most lurking in his chest.

Dragon is strong, but a man with burning blood hardly lasts for long. The Veil could have done him in.)

Now, Garp is at Loguetown, and staring at a teenager who breathes fire and strikes against the world with soundless fury in flashing claws.

He frowns at his son, whom he loves, who is stern and imposing, who loves the dark sea like Garp wants to love _justice._

And his son _smiles,_ fangs wide and dripping flame and venom, and cackles.

The world cracks at the laugh of a dragon, of a world eater, of a _Revolutionary -_ and Garp does not falter but he knows the world is about to shift again and _again_ and -

Garp wonders if he will live to see its end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday dragon man please tell me your secrets
> 
> hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	6. Eerie - Sanji

Marin is a marine, and this is his first fight. His captain told him _it’ll be fine_ and that these are just rookies but -

He knows.

He _knows._

His Uncle left for the East and came back different. There are stories in the air at night when soldiers can do nothing but talk, stories that chill him down to the bone. Marin can repeat all of them, and knows what pirates hail from which sea.

(Seeing your uncle grow horns and smile like daggers will do that to a man.)

The Straw Hats may be rookies but they don’t hail from _this sea._

They hail from the East - almost all of them, if his sources are true.

So when a ship inlaid with bone and with a bleeding lamb head crashes into the harbor, and Marin is called to fight -

He _hides._

He is not messing with this ghost ship, this demon ship.

(It’s laughing at him,he thinks.)

He’s currently in the kitchen, because no matter what his captain says this _isn’t_ fine, and suddenly, softly, there are footsteps outside his hiding spot.

The men at Navarone have been cheering for the past hour. Marin doesn’t know _why._

He hopes its Jessica outside. She could help. Give him something to do with his hands, maybe, to distract from the pitter pattering of his heart in his chest .

He opens the door a crack.

It’s not Jessica, but it is a cook, a cook that looks human, a cook that looks _safe,_ simply walkingand smoking, just a bit.

(Marin hasn’t seen him around before, but maybe he’s just new.

Hopefully.)

He edges out.

The cook stops, silent, as Marin trips and falls directly towards him.He’s gong to hit this mad _oh god,_ his hand flying straight towards his face and -

Misses.

No.

_Goes straight through._

Or maybe the cook moved too fast?Maybe?

The man chuckles, low and soft, blowing smoke out of his mouth. “Watch your step, kid.”

Marin’s pretty sure he’s older than this man, but then he _smiles,_ and its all sharp teeth and hazy fog, and _oh,_ Marin doesn’t think he’s seen a cigarette all day.

Yet smoke wafts around this man as he turns away, footsteps far too light and far too hollow.

 _Oh,_ Marin shivers, warmth leaving him as he watches soot marks follow the cook - the _demon -_ out of the room.

_Oh._

(He never thought that a demon would be so _eerie.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so tired guys this will get an edit in the morning 😔😔😔
> 
> anyway hope u enjoyed and thanks for reading!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	7. Chilling - Garp

The aftermath of Marineford is the worst battlefield Garp as ever seen. Bodies line the ground, men and women looking up at the sky with blank, tear stained eyes and blood on their bodies, the ground torn by sword and ice and _light._

Wherever he steps, there is blood.

Garp wonders if Marines originally wore white to remind them of their own mortality.

(Not that Garp is mortal, of course.)

The second worst by far is the canyons, wrenched deep into the ground by a giant and by a man who was an emperor, but more importantly a _father_ , ready to wrench the earth apart for even his most demonic son.

Garp respects him.

Respected him.

_Damn._

He throws lilies down the ravine, a peace offering, and tries not worry about it when he doesn’t hear them hit he ground.

There were more than men on the battle field after all, eastern marines and pirates alike. They still cling to something like life, angry and dark and shrouded by shadow.

They’ll find peace soon.

The worst part of the battlefield, however, is the spot where his grandsons fell. Scorch marks and ashes flaring out as wide as the sun – (just like _Loguetown)_ blood burning into the ground ( _Like Roger’s)_ the remnants of a witch’s love scattered about (wholly Ace alone.)

The ash doesn’t kick up when Garp steps near it.

Oh _Ace -_

He takes another step, and _ice_ runs down his spine. It’s a familiar coldness, a familiar chilling, a familiar _death._

Garp looks down and sees the gouges in the solid stone, right next to his foot, as deep as canyons and made by one being. They are _black_ and _dark_ and _hungry,_ seeping into the ground and cracking outwards.

He steps away, and shivers at the raging grief of _loss_ that his grandson has marked into the earth for eternity.

Marineford will drown in three days, marked by Luffy’s _howl_ and the way he rent the world to his will.

(Perhaps it is for the best that this justice drowns. It will do no good in the coming years.)

Garp steps away, and continues his path through an unholy battleground, following the trail of his grandson’s grief that he did not _stop._

(It makes him so cold.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why are all my favorite esom chapters about garp. why do i like writing this sad old man so much. bastard. 
> 
> anyway, thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	8. Monsters - Katakuri

Katakuri is familiar with the hunger of monsters.

His mother is one, after all.

They _consume_ , everything that is in reach, until nothing remains but the ravenous thing they call a soul.

His mother consumes food, and then she consumes souls, and then - lastly - she consumes flesh.

She doesn’t know that part, though.

(Katakuri doesn’t think he’ll ever tell her what happened to Mother Caramel, found out by Pudding’s fruit.)

Monkey D. Luffy looks at Katakuri, and all he can see is his mother’s eyes.

This boy is _hungry,_ and when he smiles at Katakuri, it is just like his mother - hungry for food, for souls, for flesh and -

In the sharp turn of a smile, and the _shifting_ way of his skin, undefinable and deadly -

Hungry for _dreams._

Straw Hat cocks his head at Katakuri, head tilting just a little bit too far his hat shifting oddly between the horns sprouting off of his head, dark and like oblivion, and says -

“Oh.”

Simple, even though his voice sounds like that of a thousand men.

_Oh -_ no one has reacted like that to Katakuri before.

_(_ You see - Mama is a monster, but she doesn’t like monsters. She doesn’t like Pudding’s eyes, or Praline’s tail, or the way Smoothie’s legs are too long. She tells them _hide it,_ and _decorate it_ even though she wants one of each kind.

Mama had Katakuri a long time ago. She made him a _monster -_

Called him and told him to _eat_ and didn’t tell him what until his head was spinning and the world looked like hell and Katakuri could _see_ more than anyone Big Mom knew.

Katakuri had smiled at Mama, after, and she _glared_ with the force of a conquering king.

She laughed then, and told him to cover up.

Mama never did like monsters. Even if she was one.

Even if she made them.)

There is no fabric against Katakuri’s face nor the fangs and snarling teeth that protrude from his mouth. There is nothing hiding Katakuri’s truth, but he could never have hidden from a king like this could he?

From a demon like Luffy?

Luffy laughs, then, and it’s not like Mama has laughed before. His mouth opens wide like Katakuri’s and his chest opens too, and its teeth and its hungry and its -

“ _Ah.”_ Katakuri says, and things fall into place. 

Mama doesn’t like monsters.

Luffy _loves_ them, in a way only a captain could.

Katakuri wonders, then, what it would be like to be a monster among monsters, instead a monster among pretenders.

(Because Mama wants one of everything, and if she wanted a demon, she would get a demon.

Katakuri was just the first victim, after all.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops skipped a day - but hey, an actual chapter of esom has been posted - go cry about about jimbe there!
> 
> (two chaps will be posted tomorrow)
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	9. Island - Gaimon

He’s not quite sure when he washed up on this island.

 _If_ when existed at all when he did.

Gaimon just remembers before, and after now.

 _Before –_ blue waters that weren’t always dark, and gold slinking its way between his fingers – and _After,_ the island, waking up on a shore to find himself trapped.

The Island of Rare Animals was known for its _thievery_ after all – stealing treasure and lives, and parts of animals, all to merge them into something knew.

The head of a three headed wolf, Gaimon notes one day, growing out of the body of a crocodile with a thousand teeth.

Rare Animals, because the island _creates them._

Gaimon thinks _before_ he was a demon, with curling long horns and scaled hardness to his skin. His claws had pinched for money, he had walked dark Eastern waters, had looked out over the sea and dared to be the first to _sail._

(Gaimon has been here for a long, long time.

The island was bone when he first settled, and he has watched as animals arrived and didn’t die, and animals be born and never live. Green like snake skin sprouted from the cracks in his island’s skull, and there is still treasure, buried beneath the waves in hollow caves of bone.

He doesn’t know when he came here.)

 _After_ , Gaimon isn’t quite a demon anymore. He’s something more, something that sinks into the Island’s crust and something that traps itself into a box.

He doesn’t want to break free.

(He’s afraid of who he will be when he does.)

 _After,_ Gaimon is a protector. _After,_ Gaimon is the _Islands._

 _After_ , Gaimon was the first to walk these shores, and therefore he is the sentinel.

He doesn’t know how to be anything else, even when a boy like _death_ comes to his island and shows him the hidden truth of treasure.

(It’s fine.

The moment the Island made him _its,_ Gaimon stopped caring about treasure.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> looks at this one
> 
> wow i sure will change a lot later but anyway. jazz hands. gaimon!!
> 
> hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	10. broken - garp

Ace will never remember this, but Garp remembers the first time he broke out of his skin.

Ace was small, newly born, Rouge all but ashes as she choked out words to the baby she held so close.

Ace was like lava crust, then. Skin like blackened ash, barely held together, as his mother’s hand blistered as she held him.

Ace was the son of the devil, after all, and even if he doesn’t carry the same crown he carries his hellfire heart and _burns_ with the heat of a thousand suns.

(Garp hopes he’ll get to see this boy, still so small, still so _weak,_ grow to be a emperor’s sun one day.)

Rouge does not care.

Rouge kisses his head, all her strength gone to her child, and whispers words far too dark for even Garp to pretend to hear.

Then – then Rouge _breaks,_ Conqueror’s Will pouring forth stripping the veil of all its power as only one as humanlike as the _void_ could do.

In an instant, Ace is laid bare, his mother able to see his truth for the first and last time.

And as Rouge breathes her last, as her will fades from the air, Ace _breaks_ apart, ashen skin crumbling to reveal bleeding hellfire, a sun cutting skin –

And Rouge _burns_ as her son is broken apart forever.

(Garp doesn’t regret not stopping it, doesn’t regret letting Ace be his mother pyre.

He can’t, or he will cry every time Ace’s skin breaks apart a little too much, and all that is holding him together is hellfire and the will of the East.

Garp might break apart too. )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love this sad old man actually but i am very surprised this chapter ended up mostly being about ace n rouge fhgjk
> 
> this... makes more sense in context with the beginnings of the ACTUAL ace chapter, but i really enjoyed this one so you guys are just going to have to wait for full context for a bit dgfhjh
> 
> hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	11. hands - bepo

The captain’s hands get twitchy after Marineford.

Bepo’s too, but he tries not to think about it.

(He tries not to think of the way a conqueror kept a demon tamed, and how his eyes were bloody afterwards, and how he had to sink his hands into the chest of something _dark_ as teeth blossomed from flesh and dug in deep.

No.

He tries not to think of Monkey D. Luffy.)

They twitch when it gets cold at night, curling around Kikoku like a comfort, inky death flashing in the nights.

It’s bad when Kikoku’s darkness is brighter than whatever haunt’s Law at night.

(Though, Bepo doesn’t think anything will be as dark as the blood that poured forth from a _Demon._

Bepo had been the one to wash Law’s hands after surgery that night, softly scrubbing with soap and water and something tougher when the black didn’t come out. There were little burns around his hands, where the blood had soaked through his gloves, blood like acid.

He never wants to know what makes up _Monkey D. Luffy.)_

When the hands get twitchy, Bepo is the one to order them topside, to order them to open air and no corridors, to order Law to _rest,_ and grab his hands when they start to scratch at blood that isn’t there anymore.

(Like healing Monkey D. Luffy, it never quite works.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmmmm someday you guys will get _all_ the details of what went down at marineford. that day is not today unfortunately. 
> 
> rip bepo 
> 
> and law ig but he can just suffer his fault for looking at luffy and going heyyyy time to do some surgery on an eldritch being smh
> 
> anyway. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	12. smile - perona

When Zoro first falls out of the sky, he _burns._

Perona watches, from her little island getaway, as blood scorches the air and turns it red, as three heads fall limp, as swords scatter across the earth from unconscious hands.

A demon, dying, from the sky.

If Perona were not so furious with him _being here_ she might have found it poetic.

(Here’s the thing about _Perona._

She can’t see like some can, like the few who look through the misty haze about the world and see it for what it truly is.

At least, when she’s in her _body._

When she is a soul, a ghost, a _hollow_ of herself, she sees so much _more_ because the earthly binds of the veil have no effect on her when she becomes one of _them._

It was shocking, at first, when normal men became monsters.

Now, it gives her a better appreciation of the _cuter_ things in life.)

She drifts closer, watching the horns and shadow limbs drift about, as a pain looked crosses his features.

This is not the man, the _demon,_ she saw at Thriller Bark.

No.

This is a demon _chained._

(Perona saw the book in Kuma’s hands.

The book of crossroads.

She knows what it means.)

Perona leaves the demon and returns with a body, to retrieve the _human._

-

Zoro, despite his three faces, does not smile when he wakes.

Neither does Perona.

There is a _desperation_ in his gait as he stumbles out the door, a single-minded focus, a plea, a _Saboady_ trailing off the tip of his tongue.

It does not change when Mihawk arrives.

Only the name, seared on his lips.

_Luffy._

Perona has never seen a demon cry before. Now, as a ghost, hovering above _Asura_ , something dark and twisted and _deadly,_ she wonders if that is how demons cry.

Bloody, wrenching, and _deadly._

(One face watches her, shadow sword gripped between gleaming fangs. She shivers as she sees it, and floats upward, higher and higher.

Something tells her that it won’t help if Zoro decides to give chase.)

She wonders what it will take to get a demon like him – snarling, hurt, and _angry –_ to smile.

When the word comes of Marineford sinking beneath the waves, a boy with a bloody _3D2Y_ on his arm the cause, she knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY LAST CHAPTER FOR THE DAY  
> SORRY I SPAMMED YOU ALL  
> I HAD FALLEN BEHIND
> 
> no one ever keep me to a steady update schedule i will never do it
> 
> anyway time skip shenanigans!! there will be an actual chapter on this at some point. for now - perona! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	13. deep - shirahoshi

Fishman island has never seemed that deep to Shirahoshi. There’s _light,_ everywhere you look, almost like you are touching the sun, and air, fresh and clear, like the forest of land are supposed to be.

Though she is a mermaid, Shirahoshi has never felt like she lived at the bottom of the sea.

Watching Luffy tear apart a madman as the voices of ancient kings _sing_ in her head, Shirahoshi still doesn’t.

Now, as a Sea King whispers _Old Blood, Ancient Waters_ in her head, and another mentions _Death Bringer, Death Seeker,_ and a smaller, more silent one whispers _Watch Him **Feast,**_ Shirahoshi knows

Fishman Island is not located at the sea floor.

Beneath it is _bones_ , beneath it is _corruption,_ and further than that is a trail eastward, to eastern waters, where the ocean drops off into something dark, something wretched, something like –

_Luffy._

(The Sea Kings are scared of him.

Shirahoshi, as much as she cries, tries not to be.)

He smiles afterwards, and Shirahoshi reminds herself Fishman island is reaching for the _sun_ , not whatever depths Luffy treads from.

(She needs to, if she doesn’t want to follow the trail of sea king bones _home.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy october thirteeth! here is shirahoshi whom i love.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	14. chomp - luffy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wano spoilers ahead! you have been warned.

Luffy has always been hungry.

So very, very _hungry._ It is perhaps the one thing others know about him, even if they don’t know anything else.

(Even if they don’t know the way Luffy smiles, even if they don’t know the way Luffy fights, even if they don’t know what Luffy looks like under the human guise of flesh.

Even if they don’t know _Luffy.)_

That Luffy is like grief, like the sea, like the sun, and swallows men _whole_ until not even bones are left.

A horrible, horrible kind of hungry, that eats his heart and eats his soul, till nothing is left but the loneliness.

(And that, perhaps, hurts worse than anything else.)

Here, in Wano, where little mortal girls fight for every bite of rice and where men must work for their lives in chains, Luffy _hungers._

Tama knows it.

Zoro knows it.

The people of Udon – these guards, who have never known. Hunger - they know it. 

But these guards do not know that Luffy has fangs and Luffy has a body uncontained in flesh, and that Luffy is the man who sunk the guardians of the sea.

They do not know.

Luffy will _teach_ them, because these chains cannot hold him and neither can his flesh.

In a moment, between bites of food, Luffy bites into flesh and tastes sweet victory.

_Chomp._

“I’ve always been free,” he says to them, with bloody, fanged teeth, “Udon is mine.”

A dream surges alive in that tiny prison yet again.

And Luffy _hungers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting all the next few all at once so no big authors note. sorry ahead of time to the many emails you are getting about this gfhjk
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	15. reach - shyarly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wano spoilers ahead! you have been warned!

Shyarly is supposedly a fortune teller. This is what the King tells her, this is what her guardians tell her, this is what her _brother_ tell her.

She’s only three though.

She doesn’t know what any of this means.

All she knows is that in her pretty crystal ball, tales of horror and great weapons are predicted, bad things, evil things, but things people thank her for telling.

When Gol D. Roger looks to her, in her crystal ball she does not see anything.

Only a smile, bright and fanged, just like the demon staring before her.

(Never has a man’s future been so clear and clouded at the same time. In all of Shyarly’s years, she knows this much.)

She _loves_ it, and takes her hands off her crystal ball to reach up, and up, and up – till the Pirate King, skin scaled like her brothers yet twice as soft and a deadly _heat_ burning beneath, sweeps her up into his arms with a laugh.

She laughs too, matching that _Ghahaha!_ With a _Shyashyashya_ of her very own. Next to her head, three separate hearts beat out of turn, not quite right, even for a demon, but a comforting melody all the same.

She reaches for his mustache next, laughing as he tears her away from it, and wonders if she could reach for the fiery crown above Roger’s head, reflected in her crystal ball – or if the veil that shields it from her eyes would rip that away too

(Years later, she watches two eras rise, both by a man in a straw hat crowned by fire, and knows she could never have reached up to that height.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love shyarly,,,,
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	16. courage - smoker

Garp was the one who told him that he should apply for the Loguetown position. Smoker didn’t get why.

“It’s the weakest sea,” he had protested, “Everyone knows no _real_ dangers come from there now.” It certainly wouldn’t look good on his record.

But his words had been silenced by a single glare from Garp, and a sudden influx of memories inside his head.

_Gol D. Roger. Silvers Rayleigh. Monkey D. Garp. Dragon._

Smokers goes to the sea that birthed the world’s worst monsters, and swallows his protests.

His arrival across the calm belt is shuddering, as if slime is sinking deep into his veins and stretching his skin apart and back together again.

He _hates_ it, but the feeling doesn’t go away.

(The faces and fangs in the corners of his eye never really do either.)

Loguetown is different.

In Loguetown, there are no other new recruits from beyond the east. In Loguetown, there is a funeral pyre scorched into the Earth, and a perpetual stain scoured and burned into the ground.

In Loguetown, there are little boys and girls who do not blink, and those who do with far too many eyes, and the strangest presence of _unwelcome,_ echoing about in his footsteps.

His second in command salutes to him, reminding Smoker he has a place here despite the echoing darkness after each footstep, even as Tashigi towers above him from a height just below his chin.

Smoker takes all the courage he can, and attempts to wrangle the sea into submission.

(When he leaves, he can breathe again like he hasn’t been able to in years, and wonders what would have happened if he _stayed.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> smoker is vague because he's gonna get a lot more time in his own chapter and tashigis chapter, but this was fun. poor smoker. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	17. small - shanks

Walking along the beach, Luffy’s hand shouldn’t be as small as it is in Shanks’.

Logically, he knows it isn’t.

Logically, he knows that Luffy doesn’t have limits to his skin, to his being, to his life, that he towers above Shanks if he so wishes that that his hand is truly curved and monstrous and _sharp._

Logically, he knows that Luffy is bigger than life.

It doesn’t change the fact that Luffy barely comes up to his waist and that when Shanks swings his arm in time with the waves Luffy bounces all the way up and over them, hands dwarfed in Shanks’s.

Its just him and Luffy on this shore today. He’s already had his morning snack – disappeared with Makino in the small hours of the morning – so not even the hunger invades the peaceful air.

Luffy is giggling as Shanks swings their arms, as he jumps the waves Shanks carrying him, as his little feet leave craters in the sand. His teeth are sharp in the morning light, and Shanks does not need his conquerors to know that there are small horns peeking out of Luffy’s skin, and teeth biting out of the scrapes on his hands from the adventures of a child.

He’s like Roger, if Roger was filled with hunger and knives and something dark rather than the burning fires of hell itself.

Shanks adores this brat, even as Luffy starts to bite and has to be gently reminded _Not Food._

 _So Small,_ Shanks thinks, as he picks up the child of a worldender, so _small._

(Its quiet moments like this, when Luffy looks like a child and Shanks is no emperor, that the island seems peaceful and Shanks wonders what he did to get pulled into Luffy’s orbit.

 _Exist,_ he thinks, and is glad his hat of Eastern Straw won't burn when set upon Luffy’s hellfire crown.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bangs pots and pans together: give me more shanks and luffy content
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	18. stelly - endure

Stelly wasn’t supposed to be here.

Technically, he wasn’t supposed to exist.

But Goa’s walls have its own rules, rules Stelly will never attempt to know, and it has already taken a child.

Another must take its place.

( _Sabo,_ the name the Walls whisper, is flesh. He is of the earth first and the sea second, and isn’t at all like Stelly who breathes in ash and breathes out perfection, who belongs to monarchy and tyranny and the devil laid deep in man’s heart.

 _Sabo_ made a promise.

Stelly is one.)

His new parents call him _Stelly,_ and its odd, not knowing his real name anymore, but names have power and if he did he might have to leave, and well.

Stelly doesn’t want that.

He _likes_ it here in this trap, where everyone’s so afraid and he’s plays his part to perfection. He _likes it,_ here, when he the replacement but he is the better, and he is the one with wings of gold and beauty.

Stelly was made for this spot, for this throne, for this kingdom, for these circling walls, and if all he has to do to keep it is endure the threat of a changeling’s return then –

He will.

(At Mariejeoise, twelve years later, a fae clothed in iron armor whispers in his ear, and Stelly knows that his time in the walls is coming to a final, crashing, _end.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stellys fun. i had emotions about circles during this. and after. circles are cool
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	19. sacrifice - rebecca

There’s blood on her hands.

It isn’t hers.

(It never is. People love her too much for that. It has always been her mothers, or strangers, or _Soldier, Father - )_

It’s Luffy’s.

Luffy, who fell from the sky and crashed a crater into the earth. Luffy, whose crash sent a shockwave and blew Rebecca back a hundred feet. Luffy, who bleeds onto the ground and Rebecca’s hands as she staunches the blood, turning everything black and dark.

There’s blood all over his lips. His teeth look sharper in the daylight. 

He’s smiling though, that Rebecca can make out through her tears. He’s _smiling._

(She can’t make out anything else, and she’s not quite sure if the haziness from Luffy’s body is from her tears or something _more._ )

Around her, sounds of victory ring out. She echoes them in sobs as she holds her savior’s head in her lap and tries to staunch wounds that she can’t quite see.

“Rebecca,” Viola says, and she can hardly bring herself to look up. “He _did it.”_

There’s no bird cage in the sky. Dressrossa is in ruins, but it is _free,_ thanks to the sacrifice of the boy on her lap and _oh –_ the tears will not stop.

Rebecca is _free,_ because of a demon, because of a monster, because of the sacrifice of a thousand people and a single crew which should have never left their home.

Tears drip down, and mix with the blood on her hands, black then red in the light. Luffy feels heavy on her lap, but Rebecca has never felt so light, and maybe, maybe when the tears are gone –

She can _smile_ again.

(She follows them, as a man in green and with shadowy limbs that dance in Rebecca’s vision, carries Luffy away. She passes by the spot where Doflamingo fell, and a little-ways from that, she sees the scraps of an entire arm, bitten and chewed.

Glasses are shattered on the ground in a hundred pieces.

She wonders what Luffy could have done, to break into the eyes of a _monster.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaanddddd i think thats it for tonight! ill hopefully have more tomorrow but school has been kicking my ass so im not sure. i am. trying tho. when will free time come back from war. 
> 
> Sorry again for the influx of emails about this if ur linked up to it or whatever!!!! and for ditching this for days. after saying i would update regularly. you should know by now i am a fool. 
> 
> Anyway, Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	20. cold - akoiji

Marineford left its scars on every man.

Some more than others.

Aokiji had been a tyrant on the battlefield that day, but it did not stop him from feeling a chill settle deep, deep in his bones.

A single bite along his leg, made by teeth of desperate brother.

A desperate child.

A desperate _monster._

He had ripped Monkey D. Luffy off his leg but by then it had been too late. The chill, slowly creeping upward. Dark veins of ash crawling through his blood and limb. A persistent coldness, a following, a haunting, never letting him go never letter him rest.

He’s lucky, he supposes, that Akainu ripped the leg of in the searing heat of purifying magma.

He doesn’t want to think of what would happen if that darkness, that coldness, that terrible soul sucking void had climbed to his heart.

Aokiji would have never ripped his leg off himself. He’s too lazy for that.

(Just as he was too lazy to put down the brat, the monster, the _demon_ the first time he almost lost a leg.

The Devil Child had found a good home for herself in the end, it seemed. One with worst monsters than her.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot how to spell his name for this one and then i remembered and went WHOOPS
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	21. feast - pudding

Pudding’s mother has always had a thing for food – lavish, wonderful, _amazing_ food.

(Her children were like that to her, – food to a monster. It is why Pudding is _Pudding_ and not Anne, or Lucy, or even a half food name like _Lola._

Her mother is going to eat her alive, one day, and whether it be by her heart or by her teeth, Pudding’s not sure.)

When Pudding has _dared_ to look through her mother’s mind, in the way small children scared of the dark look for the boogeyman in dark closets, most of what she sees are _feasts._ Feasts of conquests, of islands, of food, so much delectable food – it is what Big Mom _thrives_ on.

And she invites all of them to her tea parties, her little-not-little banquets that are more horror show than party.

Some more than others.

Pudding _shudders_ at night, remembering the feast she saw in her monster-mother’s memory, a feast for one made out of another. 

(Her mother can see demons in all their truth, her conquering power striking through every core of her. In her memories, Pudding sees Katakuri, a child, smiling, eat a chunk of meat that their mother set before him and said _eat_ without question.

Katakuri hadn’t wanted to smile after that, after his skin stretched and broke apart into a maw worthy of his mother’s hunger, after his body bent and rent itself anew, after Katakuri learned to _howl_ and was shunned for the monstrosity their mother turned him into.

He took the fall for the rest of them, the demon to add to Big Mom’s collection, and it _hurts._

But it’s not as terrifying as the last feast of flesh before that, when mothers and children and sweets so delicious vanished before Big Mom’s eyes. She doesn’t know what happened.

Pudding does.

She doesn’t want to.))

Now, Pudding sits before another feast – a _wedding_ feast, her very own. Her mother had cackled when she realized what Sanji was, when she realized that Pudding was wedded to a demon.

 _Shoot him!_ Big Mom had cried, _He’ll live! Then I’ll have little horrible_ monsters _!_

Pudding wonders how a demon ( _Sanji,_ who is just like Katakuri, who is just like Pudding, who is just like Praline and all of Big Mom’s children) could possibly like _her._

Then he calls her beautiful as she raises a gun to shoot him, and not even her mother’s terrible hunger could shake Pudding’s own ravenous hunger for _kindness._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pudding is super fucking cool guys but also for the love of god someone help her please
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	22. bones - killer

The Victoria Punk was something Killer helped put together with his own two hands. He had to, otherwise she would have never gotten built.

A ship with bones in its hull? Even the most experienced shipwrights in the South balked at the challenge.

 _Bones_ , they said, _not a good fit._

(In darker corners, Killer saw them looking at faded schematics and muttering about the _East_ and the way bones aren’t supposed to be big enough to span hulls and then some. The way even sea king bones do not curl like the _Victoria Punk’s_ , dark and deadly all at once.)

Killer did it anyway, with Kidds help. Carving and drilling and nailing the bones they had found in the shallows of Baterilla into something fierce. Something _dangerous._

( _Hey,_ Kidd had said, when they were twelve and already looking at the gleaming crown of the pirate king and his glory, _look at this._

Bones, perfectly white and strong, dripping in the shallow waters. They had appeared overnight, mysterious, larger than life or the very least two little kids who hadn’t gotten a good meal in a while.

Killer had touched the ridges of the skull, drifted his hands over the jagged teeth, and had not winced when they cut into his skin, even as it burned like hellfire.

 _Wow,_ he had said, and Kidd said he had a plan.

 _We’re going to be_ amazing _with this has our helm,_ Killer’s future captain had declared and Killer had agreed. _We’re going to be the **best.**_

They had hauled the Victoria Punk’s bones into a cove, and Killer had got to work, taking bits of it and practicing with it, eventually coming up with a shield to wear.

A _mask._

Somedays, he wonders if he still has a face underneath it all.)

When she was finished, the Victoria Punk _gleamed_ with oranging bones and bloodlust. In the Grand Line, she seemed to carve her way through deadly waters, and the Sea Kings that everyone said were rampant never seemed to show their faces much – not when something like her was sailing the waters.

Killer is proud of her, happy upon this ship of death and destruction.

(He’s wonders at what cost, when their crew becomes darker and Kidd becomes more manic, when Killer can’t seem to take his mask off at night even if he wants to, when the ship angles towards islands like death and –

And the Victoria Punk _dips_ in a bow when Monkey D. Luffy goes near her deck, her figurehead sinking into the waters.

Rarely has Killer wondered where these bones came from.

Looking at the teeth dripped in blood from some unknown source, Killer wonders if he should have.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should really get working on Kidds chapter huh,,, and Bonney's,,, and the rest of the supernovas....
> 
> oof
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	23. Hide - Outlook

Outlook’s first child, his ex-child, _Sabo_ is not born.

He is summoned, and he is the first. A trade, unwillingly done, made with circles, and circles, and _circles,_ dancing along the floor.

They needed an heir to rise in rank. They asked for one.

 _A future for us,_ Outlook had pleaded on his knees to darkness, the only time he ever dared dirty himself to something inhuman, _and –_

Riches, he was going to say, offerings, he was going to sacrifice, _anything_ to appease the gate and make a trade.

Nothing Outlook would be bothered much by losing.

But the darkness had cut him off, and the world erupted in blue electric light.

(Here’s the thing with demon deals between monsters. There are _terms_ to be set and rules to be followed. Outlook didn’t finish his terms.)

The room and wind had _howled_ as one, as Outlook cowered behind a heavy sofa, hand over his ears and wings tightly bound as his back.

 _A mistake,_ he thought, _I am going to die._

He doesn’t.

Instead, the wind falls and a baby’s cry reaches his ears, soft and pure and disgusting. Outlook peeks his head up above from where he is cowering and sees, unabelievelably, a _child_ , a _baby,_ in the center of his summoning ring.

_A Summoned Child._

Outlook had _done_ it.

(Outlook summoned Sabo and gained a future so vague it lines the streets with blood and his lungs with ash. Outlook summoned Sabo, and the Darkness _took_ what it had been owed, what Outlook unwillingly agreed to.

For the death of Outlook, the darkness gained a _champion_ for destruction.

No wonder Outlook still wants to hide every time Sabo looks at him with round, innocent eyes.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me rereading sabo's chapter for reminders: oh forgot i included that line. time to write fic about it.
> 
> (Line being, of course, a summoned child.)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	24. stone - coby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an au of my own au, in a hypothetical world where coby was at dressrossa !! Hope you enjoy <333

It is a chance of fate that Coby arrives on Dressrossa the same time as the Straw Hats, but it is not a chance that he feels the rumble of _false life_ beneath his feet, and feels _rage_ bubble throughout his body.

Coby steps forward onto Dressrossa, the land of sunflowers and of pink feathers, and knows he cannot leave without drawing blood.

( _You dare?_ His heart seems to scream. _You dare imitate me, and my brethren, my family, my soul?_ )

Pica does not know the meaning of living stone – of life imbued within rock, and metal, and death. He does not understand the way that stone must move to _crush_ and the way that the pebbles dusting off Coby’s shoulder are just pieces of himself, left behind as a warning now a days.

Pica does not know the meaning of _stone._

Coby, claws sinking in to his own skin and _wings_ bursting forth like this false devil could never do, will _teach it to him._

(When Zoro strikes down Pica then steps aside – when Coby steps forward, wings flashing in the light, to deliver the final blow, there is a flash of Conquerors Haki throughout _all_ of Dressrossa, from a devil given flesh.

And in that moment – Pica sees true, living stone for the first time, and knows _fear.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pica vs coby: coby wins because i love him
> 
> short but fitting i think!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	25. storm - kureha

Kureha has lived for more than a hundred years. With her secrets to youth, she’ll live for a hundred more.

In that time she has saved more lives than she has taken, and met more people than she has healed. When Monkey D. Luffy climbs up her mountain in a flurry of darkness and death and the protective care of a captain, she knows what he is.

She has met his kind before.

(A kind smile and flames crowning his shoulders in gold, determination in his eye and a scar around his eye. Kureha had caused that scar, in her first bout of _armament_ haki, and she does not regret it.

People call Kureha a devil – its no wonder she would find her practice in a sea of them, a sea of fallen angels and darkness.)

Monkey D. Luffy says _save my crew_ and Kureha can do nothing but agree.

(It’s been a long time since a devil asked for her help. As much as the town calls her _witch,_ she isn’t one, not a true witch, not the kind that seems to heal the _darkness._

She could have been, once upon a time.)

She wrangles something larger than the mountains into a twin bed, and wraps bleeding claws and feet while dismissing Chopper out of the room. HE could heal them, if he wanted to, if he understood, but Chopper is a child just a little younger than the monster on the bed, and he can have a little bit of peace instead of wondering while the bandages don’t work as they should.

Kureha heals a monster she can’t see and fixes the spine of a man who is only smoke. By the end of the day, Chopper has _stars_ in his eyes as he looks at the woman who healed the impossible, and its good.

It’s _good._

She takes a swig of her drink and looks at her last patient. A storm, wrapped inside a human form.

What she would give to actually be able to _see_ this.

(But she is no conqueror and she has already made enough deals for things she shouldn’t have. She can go without the sight of devils for a few more eons. She can see the only monster that matters ( _Chopper-)_ and that’s enough for her.)

Instead, she makes due and tells Choppers it’s an _insect bite_ when any bug would have been shocked by the girl’s lightning the second it went near her not-quite-skin.

(The Grand Line’s weather is the most unpredictable in the world, even more than the East where normal folk cannot quite _see_ the storms roiling up ahead. It is no surprise that someone who is the wind, the storm, the crashing sound of lightning would have been rent apart by the rules of the unpredictable hurricane.

Demons are only bound by the rules they choose.

This child has chosen the _storm.)_

Kureha made a deal, a long time ago, maybe longer than a hundred and thirty nine years ago, and she will not stop her hands now.

Not when they can heal _monsters._

Kureha saves the storm, and the man of smoke and bones, and the monstrous grandson of an old friend, and doesn’t tell Chopper that he has a home, there, on the monstrous ship of dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so nami also has a chapter planned for drum, based off some of the events here, but i figured a preview wouldn't hurt. I also have discovered that i have immense joy in making garp know random old ppl in one piece because hes a bastard like that
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	26. burn - marco

His father’s hands are burned, a raw red in the light of a candle.

Marco’s father rarely gets burned, and never so badly as this, ropes of scarring skin wrapping around his forearms.

He’s hidden them well, these past few days, but Marco has been aboard the Moby since he was a child. They are as obvious as the sun, to him.

Marco gives a hum as he wraps bandages around Whitebeard’s forearm, bandages that will come off in the morning to save face before the crew, but ones that will offer healing none the less.

Normally, he would heal with phoenix fire.

But normally, Whitebeard doesn’t _get_ burned. Not from anyone less than –

“ _Gurarara_! He’s a demon, isn’t he.”

A _demon._

(Whitebeard says it like a compliment, like a father of his son’s achievements.)

Portgas D. Ace has been on their ship for less than seven days, and Marco can practically _feel_ the eastern waters dripping off of his skin.

Only one other person has managed to burn Whitebeard in his power as an Emperor – none other than the King of the Pirates.

The King of Devils.

_Roger._

Marco ignores Whitebeard’s amusement and continues wrapping the burns. “You shouldn’t let him burn you,” He says, simply, trying to put as much scolding in his tone as he can manage. “He’s not worth it.”

Whitebeard only laughs. “Boy, I can’t stop hell from burning. Ace is worth it.”

Marco thinks of the boy who burned an island to the ground in an attempt to protect his crew, the boy who leaves smoldering marks across the neck just by resting, and the one man to harm Pops in the last decade.

 _Worth it,_ to bring a demon into their midst, even if he wouldn’t be the first? _Worth it,_ to hold fire close to his just and pray it doesn’t burn him the way it burns an emperor? _Worth it?_

Whitebeard splays his fingers over his shoulder, mapping familiar burns long since faded; the ones the _Pirate King_ gave him.

Ace doesn’t look much like the Pirate King. He doesn’t even want to _be_ King, just better than the best.

But his fire…

His fire, unseen and hellish and lava bright, burns the same.

“Worth it,” Marco echoes as he finishes wrapping his father’s burns. “I hope you’re right.”

It’d be nice, he thinks, to have someone else who is fire as easy as breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> marco is fun. especially when i dont make him super sad. take care of ur pops mdude
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	27. stone - hancock + alvida

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> non-canon (for now) ficlet of alvida and hancock meeting.

Alvida knew a boy made of stone once. He was weak, then, and now he is supposedly some captain in the Navy.

Ha.

Shows what they know.

_Alvida_ knows that stones are like bones, and bones _break._ She broke Coby, she broke Loguetown, and now, in the Grand Line, she will break this pirate empress’s curse.

She lands on the Kuja Pirate’s ship at dusk, when the world starts to break away into the land of demons.

Boa Hancock looks at her, imperious and dressed in fine silk, and raises a single eyebrow.

(Hancock, untrained, is a conqueror. If she wanted to, she could see the truth of Alvida’s skin.)

Alvida does not falter in her steps, claws clicking over the pavement.

“Empress,” She drawls, tone lilting in the night air.

The empress points her finger, and stone begins to crawl over Alvida’s skin.

Ah. That won’t do.

“No.” Alvida says, and the stone _bleeds,_ “Not for me, empress.”

Hancock’s eyes widen with something recognition, with something like respect, and there is a twitch in the corner of her lips. A twitch of something dangerous. She leans forward.

“Then what do you want, _demon,”_ She lilts, the world holding its breath in the wake of her hair cascading over her shoulder.

(If Alvida needed breath in the way others did, she thinks it would have been stolen away by this woman’s beauty.)

“A deal,” Alvida says, stepping closer as blood drips from the fangs in her mouth, covering her lips in ruby red. “From one to another.”

She doesn’t say demon, she doesn’t say queen, she doesn’t say stone breaker, or heart breaker, or a thousand other half-truths, but by the way Hancock tilts her head, Alvida knows she has found a kindred soul.

And later, as Hancock’s hands glide over her own in a mimicry of an agreement, Alvida knows that stone has broken before her again – and this time, _diamond_ has shone from underneath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let it be known that i am gay and i really really really like alvida. her voice? perfection. 
> 
> this was written with hanvida in mind, but i didnt want to like, say officially it was because as with all Romance i write, its never very explict and can just be read other wise. so, uh, yeah. 
> 
> hanvida fans come get yalls juice
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	28. candlelight - robin

Usopp tells stories by candlelight, sometimes, when the days grow shorter and the islands grow darker

When he does, it is Robin’s favorite time of the day.

He sits by open flames in the galley, shadows dancing across the wall, hands splayed out in front of him as he forms puppets out of shades. His voice deepens and lilts in the way of every good storyteller as the tale he weaves comes to life in vivid words and images. The smoke seems to bend to the wave of his hands, the lull of the sea to his tone, and Robin has never quite found a story so interesting as the ones Usopp makes up by a candle wick.

She sits in the corner on such days, a book in her hand which she never reads and her eyes on the candle lights.

They flicker as Usopp starts the story, and never stop.

_Did I ever tell you,_ Usopp will begin as he always does, _about the monstrous beast I saw when I was a boy?_ He will continue, and Robin will know the story will be a good one.

Usopp has _sight._ He can see more than even Robin can, with her hundreds of eyes. And what he sees… what he sees is more than any mortal should, what any immortal should.

Usopp sees into distant worlds and brings their history back with him, just for Robin, telling it by candlelight so the little bit of her heart that is still broken over the loss of Ohara’s knowledge heals, bit by bit.

(In the candlelight, Usopp weaves history and Robin sees truth, in a reversal of roles. Usopp’s face grows sharper, his hair woven with feathers, his body separate from his shadow and bent in all the wrong shapes. It's only ever for just a moment, but Robin’s life has always consisted of stolen moments, so she knows to treasure it.

Usopp has always been laid bare by fire after all.

Whether it be the fire that declared war on the world, or the fire that lights his stories with comfort, it makes no difference to Robin.

She sees the truth.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this,,, also went in 100 different directions. Oh well. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	29. legend - tashigi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shigure is tashigi's original sword

Shigure rests heavy in Tashigi’s hands. There is untold history rheld in its hilt, in the sharp curve of its blade, and it weighs more on her than the actual heft of the sword itself.

Tashigi is only eleven, and this sword is only a grade sword, but she cannot stop herself from being _awed_ by the power that she can touch now – that she can _wield_ now.

(Tashigi is oak, and Tashigi is history. She sinks her roots in low and bends with the breeze, and so she understands from where things come.

A blade that holds history, a history as deep rooted as Tashigi, as lingering and hurt as her own spirits, is something to _treasure._

To be wary of.)

 _Shigure,_ the sword whispers to her in the slice of its cuts, _Rain in Late Autumn._

Born in the East and tempered with hellfire, the blade strikes through Eastern blood with ease. _Unbreakable,_ the sword whispers, _the change between life and death._

Legend says that _Shigure_ wavers like the wind and blows like the rain; in battle, it will not falter underneath any blade of any grade.

 _And if it does,_ rumors whisper, following the one already healed chip in Shigure’s tip, _eastern waters will **storm** from the heavens **.**_

Tashigi holds the legends close as she does history, and ten years later does not hesitate to use Shigure against Wado Ichimonji.

Shigure doesn’t falter.

(It rains, and pours, acidic and bloody and dark from the sky as she draws it for the first time against an enemy greater than her. It's an omen, she knows, in the way her oak opens up and Shigure cuts through empty air, of change, of the coming winter.

The world is changing, and soon, the legend of Shigure will be forgotten.

Tashigi will make sure a new one takes its place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kinda like a prelude to my tashigi chapter that is being written up, again with some concepts that havent been formally introduced yet, but ayyy. tashigi has a plant theme!!! fun
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	30. sincerity - rika + luffy

A faceless marine tells Rika to tuck and roll as he tosses her over the wall, but Rika is eight and doesn’t understand.

It doesn’t matter in the end. Midair, something dark curls around her, huge arms and gentle claws making her feel as light as the wind as she still careens toward the ground.

(If the nasty wolf hadn’t bitten her wing, if she hadn’t been so small, if she was _older –_ maybe she could have saved herself and kept this whole thing from happening.

But she’s hurt, and small, and young, and it happens anyway.)

Her fall is cushioned, and peering at her with a smile full of fangs and jagged edges is a boy.

A demon darker than anyone else Rika has ever met, even darker than Zoro, who has three heads and bleeds rage and bloodlust like the Devil King himself.

She doesn’t breath.

She only _nods_ as this demon boy lets her go and leaps over the fence, to stare down the one even the East calls _demon._

There was nothing cruel in his smile, not like Helmeppo’s, or Captain’s Morgan’s snarl.

Despite his fangs, Rika finds she feels _safe_ with the demon who proclaims himself to be _Monkey D. Luffy_ and _the future Pirate King_ , even with the far safer gargoyle hanging about her shoulder.

(Around her, the world grows quiet and still in a tension she is too young to notice. Coby notices. The marines notice. The town notices.

Rika, young and touched by the comforting force of a devil in motion, is only focused on the fact that Luffy says Zoro ate her riceballs, despite the dirt and sugar and mishaps.

She is a childlike that. Focused on the things that _matter,_ like the honesty of devils, rather than the things that don’t, like a demon devouring a dream whole)

Later, Zoro and Luffy free before her and bigger than life in her tiny story, with drying blood still on Luffy’s lips, Rika figures out what made her so at ease.

It’s his easy smile, his proudly proclaimed dream, his honest _yeah I’m great,_ and the way he doesn’t hide the blood covering his teeth even when looking at Rika and her bandaged wings and too small body.

It’s Luffy’s _sincerity,_ because he doesn’t hide who he is ( _One who Feasts, flesh eater, monsters)_ or who he will become ( _King)._

He’s just _Luffy_ in all of his simplicity.

Rika doesn’t think she’d mind if Luffy became King of the Pirates.

It’d be an _adventure._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anndddd thats thirty! its still the 30th pst time right??? i think i made it with time to spare. so HA! IM CAUGHT UP! TAKE THAT SCHOOL I DID IT DESPITE ALL UR FUCKING TESTS THIS WEEK!!!!!
> 
> Okay rage at school besides, i love rika she's cool and i was watching romance dawn arc while writing and well. shells town fun arc
> 
> so, sorry for the horrible schedule keeping for this fic, but i do hope you were satisfied in the end! we got one more drabble left, and its gonna be a fun one! love yall!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! <3 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


	31. gold - crocodile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alrighty folks... here we go. 
> 
> the last one

The Crocodile shifts like the tides of a distant sea, far away and dark. He’s there, solid, and then collapsing inward. He’s there, void, and then rising up.

The nature of sand not himself, the gaping hole in his chest, the gaping scar that splits across his face in bloody-not-blood stitches – he is a push and pull, a shove and draw, balance and imbalance.

He shouldn’t _exist,_ is all the truth at its simplicity. He is _horror_ and immeasurable darkness from the depths of the sea, sand before devil fruit and death before living sun.

The Crocodile breathes out smoke made of the ashes of dead souls and rolls the golden hook around his hand.

 _Gold,_ the unattainable to ocean depths. _Gold,_ what The Crocodile isn’t.

 _Gold_ , what The Crocodile will take from the ends of the earth..

(The Crocodile isn’t like other demons. He isn’t quite _a_ demon, he’s something darker, something more, something from the depths of the sea that shouldn’t walk on land.

Yet.

The sea hates him.

Yet.

Crocodile _does.)_

The Crocodile revels in the unthought of, the unknown, the line between demon and death, and he does not hesitate to _strike._

Strawhat does not fall to his hand. Whitebeard does not fall to his hand. Alabasta does not crumble beneath him.

 _(_ The little hunger takes what little grip on the surface he has left and sends him back to whence he came.

 _Monkey D. Luffy,_ the hunger calls, and its everything The Crocodile has ever hated.

 _Loss,_ and being dragged to the origins of the East, where death blossoms and the world begins and ends all at once.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEENNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope everyone is having a great one - and hopefully a safe one! i made it!!! 31 chapters, all posted by the 31st!!! hell yeah almost kept to a schedule hell yeah hell yeaaaaahhhh
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this one! was a bit unsure but crocodile is fun, so its all good. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and have a HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEENNNN 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


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